Senator Reverend Warnock celebrated today’s one-year anniversary of the American Rescue Plan being signed into law, which brought billions of dollars in substantive relief directly to Georgians

The life-saving COVID relief law brought $570 million in broadband federal funding to better connect Georgians in every corner of the state

ICYMI from WTVM: “Sen. Warnock visits Waverly Hall to discuss rural broadband issues”

Senator Reverend Warnock: “I’m so proud to have secured more than $550 million from the American Rescue Plan to help bolster our broadband networks and am glad to see this money has already paid dividends”

Senator Reverend Warnock has long pushed for investments in Georgia’s rural broadband infrastructure

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) highlighted how the American Rescue Plan he helped pass one year ago has strengthened broadband access for Georgians across the state. Thanks to Senator Warnock’s advocacy, the law included $570 million in federal investments to bolster Georgia’s broadband systems.

Last summer, Senator Warnock visited WavCom, a rural broadband provider in Waverly Hall to discuss the urgency of expanding access to rural broadband and to speak with local WavCom employees about the importance of providing reliable broadband access to citizens in rural and low-income areas of Georgia, as well as across the United States. Senator Warnock expressed the necessity of having a connected state with strong internet, cellular and radio services, highlighting the impacts it would have from education to agriculture.

“Broadband is in the 21st century what electricity was in the 20th century—essential. Georgia families can’t thrive in our economy without reliable internet access,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “That’s why I’m so proud to have secured more than $550 million from the American Rescue Plan to help bolster our broadband networks and am glad to see this money has already paid dividends.”

The American Rescue Plan brought long overdue relief directly to the pockets of Georgians and cut child poverty nearly in half in Georgia and nationwide, kept essential workers on the job, dropped billions of dollars into schools to help them safely reopen and put billions into vaccine distribution so that every Georgian was able to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19.

Thanks to Senator Warnock’s leadership, over the past year the American Rescue Plan has also provided the following relief to hardworking Georgia families and communities: 

• More than $4 billion to support contact tracing, provide PPE and repair ventilation systems in Georgia’s K-12 schools so they could safely reopen; 
• More than $4.6 billion for the state government and more than $3.5 billion to local government entities to keep essential workers like teachers and public health officials on the job — a total of more than $8 billion; 
• An additional $550 million that helped Georgians pay their rent and another $200 million to help families across the state pay their mortgages and utilities; and
• A historic investment that expanded the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit programs, which cut child poverty in Georgia and across the nation nearly in half and put much-needed cash in families’ pockets, in addition to direct relief payments. 

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